How To Drive Innovation And Efficiency In Transformer Asset Management
By David Pownall, VP Services at Schneider Electric UK and Ireland.
Digitisation and remote monitoring are taking the industrial world by storm. From large‑scale factories to niche research sites, keeping a keen eye on transformers is vital for facility managers to ensure business continuity. Here, David Pownall, VP of Services at Schneider Electric UK & Ireland, explores how new innovations in asset management can optimise operations and extend the lifespan of transformers.
Transformers play a critical role in energy networks, from electrical generation right through to consumption and powering industry. And when transformers go down, so do operations. This can create a whole host of problems for facility managers — and with an estimated 1 in every 200 transformers experiencing a major failure each year, downtime is a real and present danger.
Downtime is extremely harmful and costly for businesses, but replacing transformers is an expensive decision. Costing over £300,000, no company wants to make this purchase sooner than necessary — especially in the current economic climate.
To increase uptime and avoid unnecessary spending, companies need the ability to monitor their transformers’ health. Visibility into their operating state gives companies the necessary insights to make data‑driven decisions, from how to perform maintenance that optimises performance and extends transformers’ lifespans, to forecasting when it is time to replace them. Through digitisation and partner relationships, facility managers can transform how they handle asset management.
Digitised Operations Are Efficient Operations
The key to keeping transformers online as a vital part of factory infrastructure is to put them online in the company’s digital network. Thanks to IoT monitoring and digitisation, facility managers can keep an eye on operations, equipment, and site infrastructure, ensuring that problems are nipped in the bud before they become downtime incidents and costly fixes.
This online monitoring is a cost‑effective, easy‑to‑deploy solution that ensures business continuity. Using real‑time monitoring data, managers can predict potential issues before they occur, able to schedule maintenance in a more efficient way. Not only does it save engineers’ time, being assigned to tasks that are urgent, but it also saves facility managers’ time, able to gain quick, real‑time insights into equipment health and operating state, able to map trends against safe limits.
Predictive maintenance and monitoring boost reliability, increase the safety of equipment and reduce the risk of downtime with maintenance scheduled based on transformers’ needs. Companies can assess short and long‑term risks with recommendations based on industry standards, using real‑time data to make decisions about maintenance and asset replacement.
Don’t Let Transformers Go To Waste
Operating industrial sites proves more difficult than ever in an increasingly disruptive energy landscape and tough economic times. Finding any way to cut costs, while maintaining uptime and quality, has become a necessity. Extending asset life expectancy reduces downtime, saving money and ensuring business continuity. Prolonging the life of vital equipment like transformers not only saves on large upfront costs of replacement equipment but also reduces throwing away machinery that could operate for another few years.
Digital management technologies help to reduce physical waste and pollution caused by transformers and other ageing equipment. By reviewing performance, and predicting optimal repair and refurbishment cycles, asset management software helps businesses to extend the productive capabilities and lifetimes of machinery, while curbing failures and downtime. This condition‑based maintenance boosts operational and energy efficiency via optimised material usage, further slashing carbon footprints.
Condition‑based monitoring and intelligent building services have emerged as a transformative force in industry, enabling more sustainable energy practices. When facility managers harness these tools effectively, they can improve operational efficiency and help lead the way in driving positive environmental change and meeting sustainability goals.
Buy Into Transformative Partnerships
Often, facility managers will not have the skills or tools in‑house to deliver the level of digitisation needed to improve the management of transformers and essential infrastructure. This is where software‑as‑a‑service models come in, where trusted partners can guide facility managers along the optimal route to IoT monitoring, predictive maintenance, and enhanced operational efficiency.
For instance, with a software‑only offer to manage transformers, facility managers can upload and store their offline dissolved‑gas analysis (DGA) reports and get initial insights and analytics about their transformers, prioritising high‑risk equipment for closer monitoring and replacement planning, if needed. However, when this is combined with closer partnerships, these skilled partners can perform more advanced condition‑based monitoring for facility managers, providing insights that improve transformers’ performance, as well as core electrical distribution equipment.
An example of an organisation taking this approach is CERN, one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research. Working with a partner to improve transformer asset management, the nuclear research organisation uses 1.3 terawatt hours of electricity annually, with transformers playing an essential role in the reliability of this supply. As the facility’s transformers approached their average end‑of‑life, CERN turned to a solution and partner that could help predict their ageing transformers remaining life, manage their end‑of‑life for smooth replacement, and prioritise upgrade decisions.
Working with an industry‑leading partner, CERN can monitor transformers’ behaviour, analyse risk, and determine the best practice asset management of eight transformers.
As a vital part of many organisations’ infrastructure, extending the lifespan of transformers and increasing their reliability is essential. Through intelligent monitoring, IoT sensors and predictive analytics, facility managers can gain visibility into transformers’ health status and make data‑driven decisions on replacement and maintenance. Digitising maintenance processes and gaining visibility of equipment health is vital, not just for reducing costs and downtime, but also to minimise waste and environmental impact.
Learn more about Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Transformer Expert here.
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